TPT promises smooth transition for May 1 Navis upgrade

Next month will see the
launch of an upgraded Navis
system – and an improved
testing system is expected to
ensure a smooth transition.
That’s according to Mark
Wootton, Transnet Port
Terminals executive manager
for ICT, who told the Cape’s
Port Liaison Forum (PLF)
recently that with the current
version of Navis having
reached the end of its support
an upgrade was necessary, but
that lessons had been learnt
from the last upgrade.
“TPT is aware that the
upgrade to Navis 2.3 resulted
in a number of technical
issues and disruption to
business, and several lessons
were learnt,” he said.
“We have therefore planned
an approach for the 2.6
upgrade to ensure that a
similar situation does not
occur. Reducing the risk
of this upgrade has been a
priority.”
The new Navis upgrade will
be implemented on May 1,
said Wootton.
“There will be a system
shut-down on this day, but as
it is a public holiday and the
terminals are not operational
it will not have a business
impact.”
He said a command
centre would be operational
during the upgrade and for
at least two weeks thereafter
to handle any issues or
problems.
“In the run-up to the
upgrade we will engage
with customers regionally,
ensuring they are up to date
and informed about the
planned update and how it
will take place.”
He said while final plans
had not yet been made the
possibility existed that the
new system would be started
up in a controlled manner. “We
are looking at going live one site
at a time,” he said. “Through
this sequential system we can
handle any problems that may
occur and deal with them
more efficiently than going live
across the country and then
having to deal with challenges
in multiple places at the same
time.”
He said through a
sequential approach they
could stabilise each site
first. This could have some
impact on May 2 operations,
but operations would not
be delayed much, Wootton
added.
“Navis 2.6 will be
operational on May 2.”
Having experienced
challenges during the last
roll-out, Wootton said the
team realised
that the testing
had not picked
up technical
issues and so
this time round
this had been
addressed.
“In our
testing for this
upgrade we
therefore made
computergenerated
transactions
that create
load on the system and
we have performed stress
testing at 1.5 and 2 times
our current production
volumes,” he said. “The
application has successfully
tested the application at
volumes of six million and
nine million TEUs.”
He said the implementation
of an emulation tool to
simulate user activity based
on production statistics and
usage was also new to this
upgrade.
“This tool has helped us
to look at the combination
of activities that happen
at the same time at the
terminal and has allowed
for more thorough testing,”
said Wootton. “Lastly we
have also
introduced
a rollback
technical
solution and
process. If
something
should go
wrong, in a
worst case
scenario
the system
can now roll
back to the
old version
without losing
any data and then again roll
transactions forward to the
new version once the issues
have been resolved.”
Wootton said he was
confident that with the
improved testing the
upgrade would be far
smoother than before.
INSERT & CAPTION
If something should
go wrong, in a worst
case scenario the
system can now
roll back to the old
version.
– Mark Wootton